In general, the use of a portable communication or computing device (e.g., a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.) is limited, at least in part, by the amount of power that may be provided by a battery. A conventional technique to reduce the amount of power consumed by a portable device is to lower the operational voltage range of at least a portion of the portable device when not in use. For example, it may be desirable to place the processor associated with the portable device into a standby, low power mode when the processor is not in use.
Alternatively, the operational frequency of the processor may be reduced when the processor is not in use. However, with conventional processors, the execution of instructions by the processor is halted while the frequency is lowered so that the processor does not lose synchronization while the frequency is adjusted. Halting of the processor may reduce the throughput of the processor and create inconvenient delay for the user. Thus, a need exists to reduce the power consumption of a processor while reducing the impact on the processor's efficiency and the amount of inconvenience created for the user.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.